——
“Absolute Lithops Effect” is the last song on All Hail West Texas but was the first song written; it is the summation of the album, the opening statement and the closing remark. A lithop is a hardy plant, a succulent that looks like a rock until it blooms its gangly flowers. The narrator in this song is waiting, stuck in a way that feels painful and raw, but they insist on their own survival. No matter what, even if they remain trapped in this room, they will survive: “And I, I feel sure that my wounds will heal/ And I, I will bloom here in my room/ With a little water and a little bit of sunlight/ And a little bit of tender mercy, tender mercy.”
This is the whole point. This is what John Darnielle has been saying for over 30 years as the Mountain Goats: You can survive, and you can survive on your own terms no matter what they are, and you will emerge from the darkness into the light if you have to drag yourself there bloody and howling. You have a light within you that no one can extinguish if you refuse to let them. Do whatever you have to do to survive.
With a little water and sunlight and tender mercy, you will survive.
https://www.stereogum.com/2176877/mountain-goats-all-hail-we...
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30394933 [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesembryanthemum_crystallinu...
My wife bought me five different coloured lithops for my birthday a few years ago. They're all still alive, and I think all of them have flowered at least once. I never water them unless they're wrinkly; when they are, I give them a small amount of water each day until they're smooth again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MncyGuQc_gc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4yHbM9w4BI
Probably in my top-three de-stressing channels.
Warning: NSFW language, rambling, but deeply enthusiastic and knowledgable host.
which brings us, inevitably, to lithsecops
some leading security-conscious lith-oriented organisations have embraced a shift down mindset to incorporate security thinking within existing lithops teams, either by embedding security experts in the organisational groundmass, or upskilling existing practitioners. many security concerns can be addressed easily and cheaply within the geological cycle by designing and forming rocks that are too heavy and awkwardly shaped to be easily stolen or otherwise misused by the majority of unauthorised actors.
My wife acquired an interest during the pandemic, so I instantly knew what this was about.
